LISE ASERUD/NTB/AFP A young man with blond hair and a bow tie looks on as a woman in a yellow dress claps

DNA

OSLO, FEB 1: When Marius Borg Høiby stands up in room 250 at Oslo district court on Tuesday, at the start of Norway’s biggest trial in years, he will have no moral support from his closest relatives. His mother Crown Princess Mette-Marit will not be there, nor will the man she married when her son was four – the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon.

For the next seven weeks there will be no pictures of the blond 29-year-old either inside the court or outside – the court has banned them – but the world’s press is here in numbers and the palace is keeping well away.

Høiby is accused of 38 charges, including the rape of four women, assaulting and threatening a girlfriend and damaging her flat, as well as drugs charges and driving offences. If found guilty he could face more than 10 years in jail.

Rune Hellestad/Getty Images Two women, Princess Ingrid Alexandra in a white dress and Princess Mette-Marit in a yellow dress, appear with four me – including King Harald on the left and Marius Borg Høiby to the left of his sister Ingrid AlexandraRune Hellestad/Getty Images

The palace stresses that Marius Borg Høiby (here in 2022) is not a public figure and only appears with the royal family on special occasions

The palace stresses Høiby is not part of the royal family and that he is not a public figure. But he is considered a close member of the family, by his stepfather the crown prince who sees him as a son, and by Norway’s much loved King Harald V, 88, who he has known for much of his life as his grandfather.

“It’s a very dangerous moment, because the royal family should be role models,” says Ulf Andre Andersen, who broke the story for celebrity-focused magazine Se og Hør (See and Hear) in early August 2024 when police were called to a woman’s flat in Frogner on the west side of Oslo after reports of a violent incident.

Høiby has admitted some of the lesser offences, and after his arrest admitted physical abuse and destroying objects. The indictment alleges he tore down a chandelier, threw a knife at the wall and shattered a mirror, calling the woman words such as whore.

The four rape charges date from 2018, at his parents’ official residence on the Skaugum estate outside Oslo, to November 2024, after his initial arrest. One of the four, dating back to 2023, involves intercourse while the woman was asleep. The other three also involve sexual assault while the women were incapacitated, which also counts as rape in Norway.